Nichal Sethi promoted to Head of SoundOn EMEA, while Toyin Mustapha steps up to Head of Music Partnerships for UK, Ireland and SSA at TikTokTikTok promotes execs to key roles covering the UK & Ireland, EMEA, and SSA regions
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Highfield Festival shares statement following Ferris wheel fire where 30 were injuredA Ferris wheel at Highfield Festival near Leipzig, Germany caught fire at the weekend (17 August). Around 30 people in total are believed to have been injured. Two gondolas on the wheel caught fire at around 9pm last Saturday, but the cause currently remains unknown.
Rap artist Ski Aggu was performing when the fire broke out. According to reports from Sky News, 18 of those involved in the fire went on to be treated in hospital. Among those injured is believed to be four police officers, and one person sustained injuries from a fall.
The music festival later posted a statement on social media on Sunday (18 August), in which it said (translation via Google): “We would like to thank you once again for your great support during yesterday’s fire in the two Ferris wheel gondolas and afterwards. You behaved in an exemplary manner and enabled us and all rescue workers to get the situation under control as quickly as possible.
“In addition to you, our special thanks go to the first responders and rescue workers on site. 16 people are currently in the nearby hospitals and are receiving appropriate medical care there. We wish you a speedy recovery and all the best!”
Read the full post below:

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A post shared by Highfield Festival (@highfieldfstvl)

Ski Aggu also shared a statement, in which he said he was told he could not cancel the show via his in-ears, but thanked rescue workers and audience members for remaining calm and preventing further danger.
The post Highfield Festival shares statement following Ferris wheel fire where 30 were injured appeared first on MusicTech.

How to transform one instrument’s sound into another with AI–powered pluginsYou’ve probably never thought about the possibility of transforming your drum beat into a sitar part — we wouldn’t blame you. However, thanks to two innovative plugins, you can now transfer the sound of any of your instruments to another. You can morph your samples to mimic or accompany a particular sound, or to create something totally unique.

READ MORE: How to make a Y2K video game house beat in 10 minutes with free plugins

We’ll show you how to use Neutone Morpho to transform a drum beat into the sound of a sitar in real-time, and how to use Synplant 2 to analyse a sitar sample and generate a synth patch that replicates its sound. Feel free to replace the sitar with any other instrument or sample you want — as you can imagine, the creative possibilities get pretty far out.
Morph Your Sound Using an AI Model

Let’s start by setting up an instrument track with a small loop.
Grab a MIDI drum beat, and audio file, or a live signal as your input; you can even plug in your electric guitar and play it through one of Morpho’s models, for example.
Add the Neutone Morpho plugin to the instrument track you’re using, then open the plugin and click ‘View all models’. Download the Avant-Garde sitar model, then click play to open the model in the main window.
The plugin has three main parts. The incoming signal is processed on the left, the middle section deals with the AI model parameters, and on the right you can tweak the sound coming out.
Click play in your session to hearthe model. At first, this is gonna sound terrible, but we’ll fix that shortly.
Tweaking the Model Settings

You’ll want to change the Pitch Shifter every time. The key here is to roughly match the pitch of the drum loop with the frequency range of a sitar. The AI model will produce better results if the incoming sound is similar in pitch to what the model was trained on in the first place.
After that, change the Feedback Delay type to Note and set it to 1/16th notes. Adding a little feedback makes it sound less like it’s stuttering and you can play around to see what sounds good.
Moving on to the macro dials in the middle, reduce the Serendipity knob to 25 to lower the randomness of the output and change the reactivity to 60 to make it more responsive to the drums.
With a few final tweaks, you can refine your sound to make it more convincing. Focus on the Tone dial and macro Filter to warp the character of the sound. For a bit more fun, we recommend clicking on the blue cloud in the middle to open up the Micros settings.
Once you’re finished, change the Global Mix to 50 per cent to hear how drums and sitar sound when superimposed on top of each other.
Creating a Synth Replica of a Sample Sound

Now you’ll use Synplant 2 to replicate a sitar.
This plugin uses AI to create a synthesis patch based on a sample, which you can then play like any other soft synth.
Start by dragging the plugin into the session, then click on the Genopatch button at the top of the window. On the left, use the source button to load your reference sound. Adjust the sample window to choose exactly what part of the sample is analysed, then hit the Generate Patches button on the right.
Sit back and watch as the plant strands grow. The higher they climb, the more accurate they will be to your source. Each strand represents a different path that the AI model took, giving you a few different results to choose from.
Each node you see is a different sound, so click around to hear what they’re like. Once you’ve chosen a sound you like, exit the Genopatch window and return to the main screen.
Programming Your Synth

There’s plenty to experiment with, but we’ll avoid going too deep and complex for now. Mainly, you’ll use effect, release and atonality sliders as a starting point for crafting your sitar sound.
To make it easier, we grabbed a MIDI clip of an arpeggio chord pattern to show you how it sounds, but you can use your keyboard to record your own melody.
Start by shortening the release time to tighten the sound. Then, leaning into the chorus-like tone of the sitar, widened the stereo image and add reverb, both of which are controlled with the one effect slider in Synplant.
To keep everything snug and in tune with the rest of the production, lower the atonality slider. A final touch of glide to the sound and you’ve got an intriguing sitar-like synth sound.
With that out of the way, don’t be shy to double back to the Genopatch window and skim through the other patches, or pull on the seeds in the main window to change the tone of each note. You might start with a close clone of the original, but ultimately end up creating something far stranger and completely unique.
Learn more production techniques at musictech.com/learn/.
The post How to transform one instrument’s sound into another with AI–powered plugins appeared first on MusicTech.

Watch Aphex Twin DJ at his friend’s weddingImagine celebrating one of the most important days of your life with one of the greatest electronic musicians of the 21st century spinning tracks just for you.
Last weekend, Aphex Twin – real name – Richard David James – was spotted DJing at a private wedding in what’s probably one of the most overqualified wedding gigs ever.

READ MORE: Watch deadmau5 play the medieval EP-1320 while wearing a suit of armour. No, seriously

The precious moment, which has since been immortalised on TikTok and Twitter/ X, sees the musician performing for a small crowd of under a 100 people at the wedding venue. One of the songs featured in James’s set was The Bells by drum and bass producer Jonny L. The DJ’s signature visuals were also projected on the screen behind him during the show.
According to an attendee on TikTok, Aphex Twin and the groom have been friends for years, and that the DJing gig was a wedding gift. The evening also featured British electronic musician Luke Vibert and a DJ from the London-based record label futureRetro behind the decks.
Check out the moment below.

aphex twin playing his friends wedding party yesterday. (luke vibert also played).
currently drowning in an endless sea of envy. pic.twitter.com/RjLZ0rLXI8
— babybera (@babyberafinance) August 18, 2024

Went to a friend's wedding reception last night and they had APHEX TWIN DJing! pic.twitter.com/nMHT14UaO3
— Heather (@_hthr_) August 17, 2024

Meanwhile, Aphex Twin is celebrating the 30th anniversary of his 1994 sophomore album Selected Ambient Works Volume II with a new box set arriving on 4 October. The collection will be available in digital, 3xCD, double-cassette, and 4xLP standard and box set editions.
This marks the first time that every track from the album will be universally accessible across all formats, bridging a gap that previously limited access to certain tracks, notably the vinyl-only release #19. The expanded edition also features two additional songs, th1 [evnslower] and Rhubarb Orc. 19.53 Rev.
Fans can pre-order the record from Aphex Twin’s web store.
The post Watch Aphex Twin DJ at his friend’s wedding appeared first on MusicTech.

Favorite Deep Cut '90s SoundtracksThe '90s were arguably the decade of the jukebox soundtrack. Dozens of movie music collections can be called hallmarks of this era, but here are a handful of notable deep cuts (and maybe one or two that are familiar but worth revisiting) from this inspired decade of soundtracks.

Hash Ribbons signal end of miner capitulation: CryptoQuantOn Aug. 11, Bitcoin miners recorded the lowest levels of daily revenue in 2024, highlighting the profit squeeze miners are experiencing.

Gemini Live could use some more rehearsalsWhat’s the point of chatting with a human-like bot if it’s an unreliable narrator — and has a colorless personality? That’s the question I’ve been turning over in my head since I began testing Gemini Live, Google’s take on OpenAI’s Advanced Voice Mode, last week. Gemini Live is an attempt at a more engaging chatbot […]
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Apply to Open Jar StudiosOpen Jar Studios has announced that applications will be accepted until Sept. 30 for the Broadway Inclusion Project. The project is dedicated to increasing accessibility of professional resources for projects and will award up to 500 hours of free studio space and resources to BIPOC, LGBTQIA+ and special needs artists.

Learn more and apply at openjarstudios.com/broadway-inclusion.The post Apply to Open Jar Studios first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Blackstone’s Hipgnosis is getting ready for its next phase…Blackstone officially acquired Hipgnosis Songs Fund from its public shareholders in July
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Cost-Optimized Raspberry Pi 5 Released With 2 GB RAM and D0 SteppingWhen the Raspberry Pi 5 SBC was released last year, it came in 4 and 8 GB RAM variants, which currently retail from around $80 USD and €90 for the 8 GB variant to $60 and €65 for the 4 GB variant. Now Raspberry Pi has announced the launch of a third Raspberry Pi 5 variant: a 2 GB version which also features a new stepping of the BCM2712 SoC. This would sell for about $50 USD and feature the D0 stepping that purportedly strips out a lot of the ‘dark silicon’ that is not used on the SBC.
These unused die features are likely due to the Broadcom SoCs used on Raspberry Pi SBCs being effectively recycled set-top box SoCs and similar. This means that some features that make sense in a set-top box or such do not make sense for a general-purpose SBC, but still take up die space and increase the manufacturing defect rate. The D0 stepping thus would seem to be based around an optimized die, with as only possible negative being a higher power density due to a (probably) smaller die, making active cooling even more important.
As for whether 2 GB is enough for your purposes depends on your use case, but knocking $10 off the price of an RPi 5 could be worth it for some. Perhaps more interesting is that this same D0 stepping of the SoC is likely to make it to the other RAM variants as well. We’re awaiting benchmarks to see what the practical difference is between the current C1 and new D0 steppings.
Thanks to [Mark Stevens] for the tip.

Anthropic asks court to ‘prune’ Universal lawsuit to focus legal battle on ‘whether it is fair use’ to train AI using copyrighted worksAnthropic describes many of the claims against it as "implausible and supported by threadbare and conclusory allegations"
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Historical Microsoft and Apple Artifacts Among First Christie’s Auction of Living Computers MuseumRecently the Christie’s auction house released the list of items that would be going up for sale as part of the first lot of Living Computer Museum items, under the banner “Gen One: Innovations from the Paul G. Allen Collection”. One auction covers many ‘firsts’ in the history of computing,  including a range of computers like an Apple 1, and a PDP-10, as well as early Microsoft memos and code printouts. The other auctions include such items like a Gemini Spacesuit as worn by [Ed White] and a signed 1939 letter from [Albert Einstein] to [US President Roosevelt] on the discovery by the Germans of a fissionable form of uranium from which a nuclear weapon could be constructed.
We previously reported on this auction when it was first announced in June of this year. At the time many were saddened at seeing the only computer history and its related educational facilities vanish, and there were worries among those who had donated items to the museum what would happen to these now that the museum’s inventory was being put up for sale. As these donations tend to be unconditional, the museum is free to do with the item as they see fit, but ‘being sold at auction’ to probably a private collector was likely not on their mind when filling in the donation form.
As the first auctions kick off in a few days we will just have to wait and see where the museum’s inventory ends up at, but it seems likely that many of these items which were publicly viewable will now be scattered across the globe in private collections.
Top image: A roughly 180° panorama of the “conditioned” room of the Living Computer Museum, Seattle, Washington, USA. Taken in 2014. (Credit: Joe Mabel)

Genelec kit out Molok Studios Milan-based Molok Studios have just installed 7.1.4 Genelec SAM systems in two of their mixing rooms. 

Top Music Blogs: Ranking Best Platforms To Promote Music Updated DailyWhat are the 50 top music blogs to contact to promote new releases, tours, and more?
The post Top Music Blogs: Ranking Best Platforms To Promote Music Updated Daily appeared first on Hypebot.

Radio still dominates ad-supported listeningNielsen released its latest stats on U.S. audio listening habits in Q2 2024, showing that much-maligned broadcast radio still dominates ad-supported listening.
The post Radio still dominates ad-supported listening appeared first on Hypebot.